Taboola’s new Data Advantage Report puts a number on a habit many media planners know too well: as budgets climb, targeting lists often don’t. In a survey of 326 senior marketing and advertising leaders in the US and UK, 81% agreed their organisation tends to keep aiming ads at the same audience segments even when budgets grow.
The poll, fielded in August 2026 among companies spending at least $300,000 a month, also found 92% would be likely to move budget to the open web if it offered true closed-loop measurement – following one person from first touch to purchase. The average respondent said they would reallocate 28% of current ad budget.
Respondents came from automotive, banking and financial services, and e-commerce, split 52% US and 48% UK. Only 21% call their performance channels fully integrated, and the top reason spend stays inside closed platforms is lower confidence in open-web targeting accuracy.
Why this matters for performance teams
Most performance marketers already suspect they are hitting the same people. What is new is how plainly senior decision-makers admit it, even while budgets rise by an average of 9%.
Taboola’s chief executive, Adam Singolda, framed the problem as an identity gap. “Outside closed ecosystems, advertisers face a significant identity blind spot,” he said. Closed-loop identity means seeing one consumer across devices, emails and publisher visits before the conversion. On the open web that linkage is harder because users don’t log in everywhere.
But this is a survey of intent, not a transfer of spend. The report itself notes that budget destination was not asked. Taboola also sells open-web inventory and an identity product, Realize ID, so the findings double as a product argument.
Three numbers to read carefully
- 81% agree they recycle the same audience segments – a top-two-box sum, with 29% agreeing strongly.
- 92% would likely shift budget if closed-loop identity existed – with 32% saying “very likely”.
- 28% is the average share they say they would reallocate, under a hypothetical with no timeframe or budget baseline.
The report’s headline 75% “not very easy” figure also maps to a mixed picture: about a third of respondents actually called cross-touchpoint identification difficult on the report’s own scale. Top-two-box totals can flatter weak signals.
On the open web, the top barrier is fragmented identity: 35% of respondents named limited standardization of audience and identity data as the main obstacle, ahead of cookie loss and privacy-safe solutions. Lower confidence in targeting accuracy is the leading reason budgets stay in walled gardens. That is why a closed-loop promise worth 28% of budget matters – but only if the identity graph is accurate.
What to do before you move budget
Use the survey as a prompt, not a green light. Pull reach and frequency across search, social and display to see how much overlap your own accounts carry. If most impressions are hitting one segment, test a small open-web holdout with a clean audience list and measure incremental conversions – not just last-click performance.
Ask any identity vendor for proof that its resolution actually lifts incremental return. Independent simulations have shown identity errors can make a profitable campaign look unprofitable, so accuracy is the real gating factor, not willingness.
Source: PPC Land
